


You Have Your Own Luck

by udagawa



Category: Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, M/M, Mutual Pining, Slow Burn, Supernatural Elements, kind of a demon au, may get a bit angsty, the hoshido crew deals with spirits and stuff, the nohr siblings are supernatural hunters/researchers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-30
Updated: 2017-08-08
Packaged: 2018-12-08 06:48:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11641182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/udagawa/pseuds/udagawa
Summary: “You really have the devil’s own luck, don’t you?”“No I don’t,” Takumi denied immediately, eyebrows furrowing at Leo’s comment. He seemed to have developed a dislike for the idiom in that moment, probably just because it was Leo using it. “If I did, I wouldn’t be stuck in this mess right now.”Leo stared blankly at him for a moment then let out a loud sigh. “You’ve got your own luck then, happy?”





	1. Chapter 1

Takumi was no stranger to nightmares.

Since they were such a common occurrence for him, he grew used to them over the years. They were a nuisance, of course. He had spent many, many nights wide awake, unable to go back to sleep from the fear that the nightmares would come back.

But after suffering through a countless number of bad dreams ever since he was a little kid, he somewhat became numb to the fear. He could even get himself to fall asleep again sometimes, but he still preferred to spend his nights with open eyes and resorted to naps for the mandatory sleep supply. The fatigue that came with the lack of proper sleep was practically his best friend at this point.

However, throughout the last few days, Takumi’s nights had been infiltrated with horrifying nightmares, ones that were on a completely different scale from his usual ones.

The dreams he was used to having had a sense of surreality to them that separated them from reality, and they didn’t haunt him once he woke up because his memory of them became hazy over time.

Unlike those, his recent nightmares were terrifyingly realistic, so much so that he had trouble telling apart dream from reality. The worst of all was that Takumi remembered every dreadful event, the images as clear as his real memories. Any terrible deed that Takumi did in his dreams, he carried on the guilt into the day. Any terrible deed done to Takumi by someone else, he carried on the resent into the day.

After the seventh night of misery, Takumi lost the little patience he had managed to muster and decided to seek help. Being the “stubborn ass” (as Hinoka had called him) he was, Takumi was usually not the one to reach out to others to help him with his problems. In fact, he had tried to endure through these abnormal dreams, hoping that they would eventually go away on their own.

But one week was his limit, and in all honesty he was proud that he had even lasted that long. It wasn’t an easy task to make through a school week with only about an hour or two of sleep each night, along with plenty of grotesque images from the agony he was supposed to call rest to distract him. Since no one in his house drank coffee, Takumi had to get his caffeine through green tea. Considering his caffeine intake, he probably used up all of the green tea that they had in the house (which was a lot of green tea).

So, as much as he hated to do so, he decided to give Orochi a call. It was the weekend, so he could probably schedule to meet with her sometime over the next two days.

He usually avoided her, since their usual conversations consisted purely of her sharing one of the seemingly infinite amount of embarrassing stories about him back from when she used to babysit him. Takumi wondered if his younger self was really was that much of an idiot to produce such a massive amount of stories, or if she had made some of them up just to frustrate him.

Either way, he wasn’t quite fond of talking to her, but she was also the only one who could make the spell tags that alleviated his nightmares. The tags weren’t able to fully prevent the nightmares, but they did help drive them away and pushed Takumi to wake up from them as soon as possible. Sakura was steadily catching up to her charm-making skills, but her woven bracelets weren’t as powerful as Orochi’s spell tags yet.

About a year ago, Sakura had decided to try and develop a bracelet that could completely block off the nightmares instead of just dispelling them. Takumi felt bad for making his little sister worry about him enough to go through such trouble, but he also appreciated her determination for the project. It was one of the things that reminded him that, unlike what he told himself time after time, he had people who cared about him.

She hadn’t succeeded in making a working bracelet yet, but Takumi was confident that she would eventually be able to. Sakura was a patient girl who didn’t get worked up like he did, and she was able to persist even after multiple failures. She was also a young but very capable diviner, and surely her years of studying would pay off.

But until then, Takumi was stuck with Orochi and her epics of his glorious childhood.

He found the contact with the devil emoji as its name (an overall appropriate choice of emoji – even the purple color matched her hair) and tapped on it as he took a deep breath.

The tone stopped ringing, and there was a small crackle indicating that Orochi had picked up the phone. Before any greetings got exchanged, she spoke up.

“ _Oh, I didn’t expect this contact name to show up on my phone for at least a few more months! I thought you had a personal policy to only call me when absolutely necessary,_ “ said a slightly nasal voice with a tone of amusement. “ _Perhaps you’re ready to finally face the rest of your dark past? I promise it’ll lift a weight off your shoulders once I finish–_ ”

“No, that’s definitely not why I called. And that personal policy of mine is still in effect, so don’t worry,” Takumi interrupted. He let out an exasperated sigh. How she was capable of annoying him in a matter of a few seconds, he didn’t know.

“ _Wait, you’re telling me the spell tag already wore off? It hasn’t even been a month, it should last you at least several more!_ ” Orochi for once sounded something other than cheerful. She did hold a lot of pride in her skill, so maybe she was offended by the suggestion that her charm was somehow malfunctioning.

“Well, I don’t think it’s a spell tag issue. The paper and ink are still intact, and there isn’t any sign of wearing out or burning. I think this is something different,” he quickly explained, nervous that she would start ranting about how her tags were made with top quality material and that there was no way that they would fail.

There was a sigh of relief from the other side of the line, and Takumi followed the example and quietly let out the breath that he had been unconsciously holding.

“ _Well, that’s good to hear. But then what’s the issue?_ ”

“Nightmares, different from my usual ones.”

There was a moment of silence. Orochi was probably was waiting for him to elaborate.

Takumi hesitated. Eventually, he decided he wasn’t ready to share the specifics yet.

“Look, I’d rather avoid talking about it right now? Or at least, I’m not ready to share. Not yet. It would be great if you could somehow magically tell me what’s wrong without me having to share much, actually...”

He trailed off, realizing that the idea sounded pretty stupid once he said it out loud.

Neither of them said anything for what felt like hours. It was strange to have a phone call with Orochi that wasn’t constantly filled with chatter.

Finally, Orochi broke the silence with a surprisingly gentle voice. “ _Okay, I understand that sentiment. It would certainly help if you could tell me some details, but I can still give that magical problem solving a try. I’ll have to see you in person though._ ”

Takumi’s mood lifted a bit at Orochi’s statement. “I’m available any time this weekend.”

“ _Oh my, you certainly sound excited. You’d be putting me on the spot if you told me that your problems were actually ones related to your heart–_ ”

“I can’t believe that for a split second I thought you were a decent person.”

Orochi immediately bursted into laughter, and Takumi had to wait until she got herself together enough to reply. “ _Pff, teasing you never gets old, Takumi. Your reactions never disappoint me,_ ” she said, still chuckling in between her words.

“Ugh, whatever. Just tell me when you’re available,” he grumbled in reply. His forehead started to ache from how hard his eyebrows were furrowed, but he didn’t bother to release his frown. Even though she couldn’t see him, he still wanted his expression to clearly reflect that he didn’t appreciate her sense of humor.

“ _Okay, then I’ll see you tomorrow at the Olive Garden near your house._ ”

A corner of Takumi’s mouth twitched as he grimaced. “Seriously? Last time we went there, you ordered so many refills the server had to ask if you were _sure_ that you wanted another batch. I’m pretty sure that was her subtle way of saying ‘please fuck off’. I was tempted to leave you behind with the bill.”

“ _Hey, it’s not my fault that Kagero is stubborn about only eating Asian food. I need my supply of cheesy grease once in a while,_ ” she protested, and he couldn’t help but sympathize with her. His family never ate outside, and rice was a part of every meal. Not that he was going to complain, since homemade food was delicious, but sometimes he did get tired of grilled fish and craved pizza instead.

“Your amount is still excessive. I would probably kick you out if I worked there.”

“ _There’s no way you would work at a job having to deal with people in the first place._ ”

Unfortunately, Orochi had made a good point.

“ _You should just be grateful their refills are free. You pay for the food, remember?_ ”

Realizing that this wasn’t getting anywhere, Takumi decided to give up. He was stubborn, but Orochi wasn’t going to let him beat her in an argument, especially one about Olive Garden. “Alright, fine. I’ll see you there tomorrow around noon then.”

“ _Sounds good. Oh, and bring the tag with you. I want to double-check it just in case._ ”

Murmuring a response of acknowledgement, Takumi hung up the phone after they exchanged goodbyes. He couldn’t believe that what was probably the longest conversation he had with another human being this whole week was with Orochi. 

Letting out a big sigh, he flopped face first onto his bed, burying his face into his comforters. There was a reason why he hadn’t talked much to other people the last few days. Talking to people took our a lot of energy from him, and he didn’t have much left of that in his system.

That last call had completely drained him, and Takumi wanted nothing more than a decent sleep at the moment. Maybe the nightmares would pity him and leave him alone for a few hours.

The logical part of him knew that that was not going to be the case. It told him to just go wash his face with cold water and get a cup of green tea, or maybe even ask Ryoma for the anti-sleep pills he had (even though he was probably going to say no and start lecturing him about the importance of sleep. Ryoma was a hypocrite in that matter). But most of him was tired and sleepy and very much did not want to stay awake any longer, and after a brief internal debate, the majority eventually won over.

He turned his head and looked up at the clock. It was seven, still before dinner time. Takumi didn’t care much about missing a meal though, and he was sure his family would excuse him, knowing that he was finally getting some sleep.

So, without bothering to change his position into a more comfortable one, he allowed himself to let go of his drooping eyelids and almost immediately fell asleep.

 

~*~

 

Perhaps the most unusual part about that night was that it was completely peaceful.

No nightmares, no disturbances, no waking up in the middle of the night. Just hours of blissful sleep.

Takumi had somehow managed to remain in the same position as he had put himself in before he fell asleep, which was strange. He usually woke up to his blankets all thrashed about and his limbs flayed around. Truthfully, his body was not accustomed to such long hours of lying down, so his whole body was groggy and unresponsive, but the usual weight of fatigue he carried seemed to have been lifted.

All of this was such a foreign sensation for him, it almost didn’t feel real.

When he flipped over to lay on his back, he took a glance at the clock. It was almost ten in the morning, and he was still laying on his bed.

“No way this is real,” he muttered to himself. Yet, as his mind slowly recovered from the sluggishness of waking up, his senses protested against his disbelief. Takumi decided he argued with others enough to not have to argue with himself, so he accepted the fact that this was all, in fact, reality.

It was sad how bizarre it was that he had gotten a good night’s sleep. He had to _convince_ himself that he had actually slept without nightmares.

But that formed another question. Did this mean that the weird nightmares had gone away by themselves, like he had hoped for them to do so?

Wow. How considerate of them to do so right after he asked Orochi for help.

Takumi wondered whether he could cancel his plan with her – the less he could see of her, the better – but that seemed like a real dick move, even for him. Besides, even if the weird nightmares were really gone, it wouldn’t hurt much to buy her a meal just as a general thank-you. She did help him in many ways and occasions.

He dragged himself away from the comfort of his bed (which was weird, since he was usually very eager to get out of bed) and slowly trotted into his bathroom, digging for his hair tie through his tangled mess of a hair.

Takumi managed to tie his hair into a ponytail just as he reached the sink. Without bothering to turn on the lights, he turned on the faucet and splashed his groggy eyes with cold water. The chilling temperature of the water that usually forced him to jerk awake felt cool and pleasant on his skin today.

This day was starting out far too nicely. Something had to go wrong eventually.

Trying not to think too hard about the apprehension, Takumi grabbed a random hair tie to get his bangs out of the way. He took a mental note to get himself a headband sometime.

As his hands brushed past his hairline, he felt something protruding from his forehead.

“What the–”

Was his brain messing with him? He patted on his forehead to double check. No, he wasn’t imagining it. Something was definitely there. Had he somehow bumped into something in his sleep? But he was pretty sure he hadn’t moved a single bit the whole night...

Takumi flipped the light switch and pushed back his bangs.

What he saw in the mirror was scream-inducing. And scream he did.

A pair of small horns had grown right above his temples overnight.

There it was, the cue for the rest of his day to go completely downhill.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, so this is my first attempt at writing fanfic ᐠ( ᐛ )ᐟ
> 
> Most of the fic will alternate between Leo's and Takumi's POV, but some chapters will be in others siblings', like how the summary is in Elise's POV. I'm hoping to make this a combination of lighthearted interactions and heavy plot, so let's hope I don't overwhelm myself with one or the other ahah
> 
> Feedback is greatly appreciated, especially since I didn't have anyone else go over it so I'm worried about readability and such hhhh
> 
> Speaking of which, if it were possible for someone to beta for me, that'd be awesome! I have a tendency to burn out when it comes to editing, so having a beta reader would be a huge help :') If you're interested, please contact me through my [tumblr](http://arkeii.tumblr.com)


	2. Chapter 2

“It’s got to be one of those wacky nightmares,” Takumi murmured to himself as he paced around his room for the hundredth time. “There’s no way this is real. Yeah, I’m probably stuck in another damn nightmare.”

Or was he?

Members of his own family dealt with ghosts and spirits every day, some as a study and others as a job. As ridiculous as it sounded, growing horns couldn’t quite be ruled out as impossible when souls of dead people and holy deities roamed the earth.

Takumi glanced up at the clock. 11:40.

Dream or not, it couldn’t hurt to go meet Orochi in this situation.

Takumi rushed down the stairs, not bothering to change out of the clothes he had slept in. They were what he wore outside yesterday anyway.

As he reached the first floor, he found some reassurance in the fact that he at least hadn’t waken up before everyone had left the house. It would have been awfully hard to explain his current state to them without getting bombarded with a million questions.

The coat rack next to the front door was his busy family’s hub for hastily throwing off jackets and hats. Hinoka had at least a dozen hats hanging on it, and for once Takumi was grateful for her greed for headgear. After picking out a navy snapback to put on, he grabbed the house keys and hurried out the door, quickening his pace towards the meeting place.

Olive Garden was a 10 minute walk from his house. He could probably get there a few minutes before noon. Maybe if one of those minor gods who liked to meddle with human affairs decided to pity him, Orochi would also arrive a bit earlier.

 

~*~

 

Apparently the gods found it to be more preferable to get a good laugh out of Takumi’s misery.

The huge crowd waiting in front of the entrance was one thing. Spotting his younger sister in the midst of the crows was another. Seeing Orochi and Sakura already chatting friendlily was the worst.

Takumi didn’t even get a chance to hide somewhere and form a Plan B. He was thrown straight into the fray when Orochi spotted him and called out to him loudly.

He didn’t bother trying to hide his distaste.

“What’s with the grumpy face, Takumi? Didn’t sleep well again?” Orochi asked. It was hard to tell whether she was teasing or if she was actually concerned.

“N-No, actually, brother slept like a log for once! He fell asleep around seven and wasn’t awake even until I headed out. He didn’t even eat dinner yesterday,” Sakura explained cheerfully, answering the question for him.

“Yeah, as unreal as it sounds, I did sleep well,” he grumbled. When Sakura turned to him with a slightly worried expression, Takumi tried to lightened his tone a bit. “There’s been a change of circumstances since I last called you, though.”

He glanced at Sakura and expected to see a confused expression. Instead, she gave him a curious gaze as if urging him to elaborate on this “change”.

Orochi noticed the exchange between the siblings and spoke up. “I invited Sakura to join us for lunch and did the honors of explaining your condition to her. Thought it would be a good idea to have another skilled diviner to help us out with figuring this out.”

A corner of his mouth went up when Sakura blushed at Orochi’s compliment and became a mess of indecipherable stammering. As much as Takumi wanted to complain to Orochi for bringing someone else along without even telling him, he really couldn’t when it was Sakura. Her familiar, calm presence helped him settle down his nerves in the midst of this madness of a morning.

“Alright, but as I said, there’s been a change, and it’s not something to discuss in public since it involves some... visual elements.” Without thinking, he brought his hand up to adjust his cap.

Sakura seemed to have noticed the minor gesture immediately. “B-Brother, you never wear hats.”

“Yeah, look – I’ll explain it all, so can we go to your car right now, Orochi?”

Orochi’s eyes widened as she gave him a look of incredulity. “You’re telling me to leave Olive Garden behind? We have to wait here to get in as soon as they call us!”

Takumi raised an eyebrow at her. “Your pasta can wait. I’ve been internally screaming this whole day, so for gods sake just bare with me.”

After some bickering, Orochi eventually gave in, probably mostly out of guilt from seeing Sakura look distressed.

Takumi rolled his eyes when he noticed that the car wasn’t even far from the restaurant’s entrance. He opened the back door and followed Sakura into the car after letting her go in first. Orochi decided to sit in her usual spot in the driver’s seat.

“Alright, so what’s the big deal? I’m guessing it has something to do with that hat,” Orochi inquired, gesturing at his head.

He let out a sigh as he fiddled with the brim of snapback. “Before I show you guys, promise me you won’t scream, or at least not loud enough to gather attention.”

The two looked at each other questioningly, but eventually nodded in compliance.

“Alright then, here goes.”

It took a moment for them to register what they were seeing, but once they realized what it was, the faces they made were absolutely priceless. If it had been any other situation, Takumi probably would have laughed at their ridiculous expressions. Unfortunately, they weren’t quite as humorous when he was the subject of astonishment.

“Wow, you guys actually managed not to scream,” he commended them, putting the hat back on. He wasn’t even being sarcastic. He was actually pretty impressed that they managed to contain their screams, especially considering how he himself had reacted this morning.

Or maybe they were just too surprised to even scream, as neither of them had moved a single bit since Takumi had made his revelation.

Just as he was starting to get a bit worried, Sakura managed to stutter out a response. “B-Brother? A-Are those h-horns g-growing on your h-head?!”

Takumi nodded in affirmation, leaning further back into the car seat in an attempt to find some form of support from it.

“What the actual fuck,” Orochi murmured, apparently still not fully over the shock.

There was another lengthy silence, and as understandable their shock was, Takumi was starting to run out of patience.

“Okay, so any idea what’s going on? Anything we can do?” he asked hopefully, looking back and forth between the two.

Unfortunately, the only response he got were blank expressions.

“I-I’m sorry brother, I-I can’t think of anything–”

A shudder went down his spine and he felt the chill of cold sweat on the back of his neck. “What, seriously?! Like, nothing... nothing at all?”

“In my numerous years as a diviner, I’ve never seen anything like this.”

Takumi’s heart sank. This time it was him who was left speechless. “B-But you guys have a lot of experience with paranormal things so I thought that–”

“Brother,” Sakura interrupted him, gently placing a hand on his shoulder. “Brother, you’re panicking. Take deep breaths.”

He only then realized that his whole body was shaking badly. Up until now, he had been in a sort of daze from the absurdity of the situation. He found stability in the trust he held in the source of information that he reached out for.

And now suddenly, his mind was overcome by the dreadful idea of not having a solution, and it seemed like that was all he could think of at the moment. It was as if he were struggling in an ocean of helplessness as waves of negative thoughts struck him back down at his every attempt to recover. In his desperation, he almost missed Sakura’s extended hand, offering him a place to lean on.

It took a lot of effort to get himself back together, but once he began concentrating on Sakura’s calm, comforting words, bit by bit he managed to muster up enough focus to attempt to calm down. He clenched his eyes shut and tried to slow down his short breathing.

_Breath in, breath out._

_Breath in, breath out._

When he started feeling less nauseous, Takumi opened his eyes a sliver and carefully laid his head on Sakura’s shoulder.

“I-I’m sorry, it’s been a while since my last panic attack and i-it’s harder to get it under control,” he apologized, feeling a surge of shame.

“You don’t have to be sorry. You know I’m glad to help,” Sakura reassured. “Take as much time as you need.”

As he continued taking deep breaths, Takumi felt his tense body slowly relax. The pain in his chest alleviated as his heart slowed back down to its normal pace. Whispering a “thank you” to Sakura, he slowly sat back up and stretched his arms.

“I think,” he started, looking up at Orochi, “I think some food will help take my mind off things.”

Orochi’s expression visibly lightened at Takumi’s statement, but concern lingered in her small smile. “Are you sure? We can stay in the car for a bit longer if you want.”

“Yeah, I’m sure,” Takumi confirmed with a nod. “Now that I think about it, I actually didn’t eat anything since lunch yesterday. But wait...” He shoved his hands in his pants pockets in hopes of finding some cash, but all he found were the house keys that he grabbed this morning. “Darn, I didn’t bring any money.”

“Well, me being the nice person I am, I’ll pay for the food today,” Orochi said with an exaggerated huff. “Just don’t intentionally pick out the most expensive thing on the menu and we’re good.”

 

~*~

 

“Okay, so I’m not quite done eating, but it seems like you two are so I’m going to get back to the earlier topic,” Orochi declared, taking out her fork from her mouth and waving it. Takumi couldn’t help but stiffen a bit, suddenly becoming aware of the hat laying on his head.

“Look, it’s true that I do have extensive knowledge in that stuff, and so does your sister. But this is something completely different than what we handle, Takumi. Like, as long as your fortune cookie has something else besides unhelpful, vague advice, I can tell you how valid its prediction is. Some of that stuff holds some serious power.”

She took a bite out of her breadstick before continuing.

“Sakura here can communicate with sacred beings and channel their power to fend off evil spirits or restore destroyed nature. But growing horns? That’s corporeal issue. It’s not our field.”

“B-But!” Sakura quickly interjected before Takumi got a chance to feel anxious again, “That doesn’t mean that there isn’t any hope! Just like w-we handle spiritual matters, t-there are others who do the same for o-other areas. I-In fact, I actually have a friend with a family w-who may have information on how to help you!”

“Oh wow, I didn’t expect you to have acquainted with others outside of family connections,” said Orochi, scraping her spoon on her now-empty soup dish. “It’s not easy to find others like us without having some kind of pre-established trust.”

“I-It kinda happened accidentally, actually. I ran into Elise beating up s-something that looked like an i-imp with a staff while screaming out some kind of s-strange spell.”

At Sakura’s mention of the name Elise, Orochi’s eyes widened. “Wait, by Elise, do you mean Elise Nohr?”

Sakura nodded, seemingly surprised at the other’s knowledge of her friend.

“Of course, how did I not think of them!” Orochi exclaimed, loudly enough to gather some glances towards their table.

Takumi stared blankly, puzzled by the sudden outburst. “Uh, mind filling me in a bit?”

“The Nohr family’s known for being extremely skilled supernatural hunters. Their history is as long as your family’s, which in my standards is pretty damn impressive,” Orochi explained. “Ever since the head of the house disappeared about five years ago, though, their activity sharply declined. They’re still around, but the siblings are still pretty young and are still adjusting to life without their father.”

Takumi winced internally at the mention of a missing father. It reminded him of his own father, who passed away at a similar time. Parallels were a scary thing.

“I actually go there on a monthly-ish basis to enforce warding tags. And since Sakura is also friends with the youngest one... Hey, it should be really easy to get in contact with them! In fact,” she suddenly sat upright, quickly asking the waitress for the check. “We’ll go there right now.”

The siblings looked at each other in bewilderment.

“W-What?! Why so suddenly?” As much as Takumi was eager to get some answers to this situation, Orochi’s decision was extremely impulsive.

“Because, it’s obvious that you would twist and turn the rest of the day if you don’t get some kind of insight,” Orochi said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

To that, Takumi had nothing to argue back with, because she was right. He probably would be so distracted with the problem, he doubted that he would even be able to sleep. Speaking of which...

“I didn’t have any nightmares last night. Maybe... maybe the unusual nightmares I told you about have something to do with this?”

Orochi seemed to consider the idea. “That’s a possibility...” After swallowing the last bit of her breadstick, she set down just enough cash to pay for the bill and tip and stood up from her seat. “Alright, so here’s the plan. We drop you off at the Nohr house, and me and Sakura will head over to your house to check out the spell tag that I’m assuming you also left behind.”

Takumi muttered his completely just excuse of being in a hurry, then followed her out the door with Sakura closely trailing behind.

“A-Are you sure they’ll be okay with such a s-sudden visit?” Sakura asked with a concerned expression.

Orochi shrugged, which wasn’t reassuring at all. “I’m sure they’re used to clients coming in without notice by now. Emergencies are pretty common in what they do, after all.”

And with that, it was decided that Takumi was going to go talk to the Nohrs right away. Alone.

The idea of going to a strangers’ house all by himself, especially when said strangers were supernatural hunters (which didn’t sound friendly at all), made Takumi feel dizzy again.

The gods were probably laughing their asses off at him by now. He felt very much honored to be providing such an entertainment to them; he could guarantee that they would have a lot more to content to laugh at very soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter feels pretty uneventful?? But things should start moving along starting the next one, and I already have a lot of it written so it shouldn't take too long to update it.
> 
> Let me know how the pacing felt, since I'm not quite sure how I did with that!
> 
> Also, I'm still looking for a betaaaa  
> If you're interested, please contact me through my [tumblr](http://arkeii.tumblr.com/)!


	3. Chapter 3

Takumi walked as slowly as he could on his way to the Nohr house.

According to Orochi, he just had to keep on following this path and he’d eventually arrive at his destination. But he really didn’t feel much motivation to get there quickly. Not when the winds were howling ominously and the trees were looming over him, casting dark shadows everywhere. He almost forgot that it was only a few minutes past 2 o’ clock.

Once again, he reminded himself that Orochi was not a decent human being. She probably made him go alone solely to make him suffer. She knew he hated things like this. Why did they have to choose a house so isolated anyway?

But no matter how slowly he went, he still made progress. Eventually, he spotted a house which, unlike what Takumi had imagined, was not painted in all black.

He paused at the front door, trying to gather up his nerves. At least the winds had settled down a bit, and Orochi had said they were young siblings, kind of like his own family... so he at least won’t be greeted by a creepy hag with a wart on her pointy nose, right?

Clenching onto the Orochi’s business card that he had been instructed to show to whoever answered the door, Takumi pressed the doorbell.

_Ding-dong_.

A high-pitched voice screamed from the other side of the door. “Xander, get the door!”

“Elise, you guys are literally downstairs!” A less energetic voice replied back.

“You don’t understand, we’re extremely occupied at the moment!” The first voice who Takumi presumed to be Elise protested back.

The exchange was immediately followed by the recognizable sound of someone getting flown off stage in Smash Bros. “Dammit, Leo! I was distracted!”

A few more seconds passed without anything else loud enough for Takumi to make out. Right when he was about to ring the doorbell a second time, the door opened to reveal a tall, blonde man with a rather scary frown on his face.

“How can I help you?” The man asked, and Takumi wondered if this really was a good idea. The guy looked pretty menacing, and it wasn’t too late to just tell him he got the wrong house and excuse himself and walk away–

“Hey, Xander!”

Takumi jerked his head towards the familiar, nasally voice. “Orochi?! I thought you left already!”

“I expected you to chicken out after seeing Xander, and by your reaction it looks like I was right,” Orochi laughed, ruffling Takumi’s hair despite his attempts to swat her hands away. “Don’t worry, he’s a nice guy, he’s just stuck with a permanent scowl that he developed at childhood.”

Xander’s expression lightened with Orochi’s arrival. “Oh, hello, Orochi. I didn’t expect to see you again so soon.”

“Yeah, sorry for the unexpected visit. An issue came up abruptly, and we need your help. I think it’s fair to call it an emergency.”

At that, Xander’s furrowed eyebrows shifted slightly upwards. “I see. We can talk about the details inside. Come on in.” He invited them into the house, taking a step aside to make space for them to pass through.

Takumi carefully approached the entrance, expecting Orochi to follow him. But instead, she just gave him a crooked grin and shook her head. “It’ll just be this guy here, since I’ve got some errands to run. I’ll stop by again for ward checkup next week.”

And with that, she left, irresponsibly leaving Takumi to fend off for himself in this situation that she pushed him in into.

After watching Orochi walk away until she could no longer be seen, Xander cleared his throat, which made Takumi snap out from the daze was in. He could feel his body go rigid as he glanced up at the tall man who was staring down at him with that intimidating face.

“Erm, we could start heading in. The weather is quite chilly today,” Xander awkwardly motioned at the admittedly cozy-looking house.

During his walk up the path, he had envisioned the house to be filled with all kinds of cryptic choice of furniture like mounts of the heads of hunted monsters and hollow knight armors holding terrifying weapons like flails. Rather stereotypical, now that he thought about it.

What he actually saw was a modestly decorated home that gave off a rather... welcoming aura. With the slightly worn furniture and faded flower-patterned wallpaper, it had a somewhat vintage feel to it, as if it had been carefully handed down from an older generation.

Amidst the general antique feel, the distant beeps and button mashing from across the hallway, accompanied by occasional bantering, seemed somewhat out of place.

“Xander, did you get kidnapped by cult members?” A voice that Takumi recognized it to be Elise’s called out. “Or did you get convinced to join them? You’ve been standing for awfully long out there–”

She was interrupted by another K.O. sound effect.

“Gods Leo, stop taking advantage of my moments of talking to Xander!”

The atmosphere of the household was so...casual. The huge contrast between Takumi’s expectations and the actual reality was relieving, to say the least. He was starting to feel a bit less nervous about the whole ordeal.

“Xander? If you’re at the front door, could you check if anything got delivered?” A different voice spoke up, this time coming from the staircase. Takumi looked up to see a purple-haired woman leaning down on the railing expectantly. “Oh, it seems like we’ve got a visitor?”

“Sorry Camilla, I don’t see any packages out here,” informed Xander, peeking out the door again to double-check. “You could check the mailbox later though. And yes, this is...”

When Xander quietly stared at him, Takumi realized that he hadn’t introduced himself yet. “Takumi. My name’s Takumi.”

“Takumi,” Xander repeated, and to Takumi’s surprise he actually got the pronunciation down. “He came accompanied by Orochi, who told us that there was an emergency that they needed our help with. We were about to go inside to discuss about it.”

Takumi nodded in affirmation, finally gathering up enough courage to step into the house. As Xander closed the door behind him, Camilla came down the stairs, showing no disappointment to the lack of package. In fact, she looked more enthusiastic than before.

“If that’s the case, then I hope you don’t mind me joining. It’s been a while since I last did field work,” she said with a smile. For a moment, Takumi thought he saw a glint of something dangerous in Camilla’s eyes, but he was probably just imagining it.

“Then let us head into the living room. Camilla will lead you there while I go get some tea.”

Xander went ahead down the hallway and disappeared into somewhere deeper in the house. Camilla gestured to Takumi to follow her.

“The room’s currently taken over by our younger siblings, but they should be about done with their match by now,” she giggled, her heels clacking on the wooden floor.

Right after she said so, Takumi heard the familiar victory song, followed by a Japanese voiceover and the announcer declaring Marth as the winner.

“Leo! Two of those stocks didn’t count!” Elise whined, “I demand a rematch!”

“You can have your rematch after we talk with our guest,” Camilla cooed as she turned the corner to enter a room mostly taken over by a mismatching couch set. The two people sitting on the carpeted floor turned around to look at them.

One was a young girl, presumably Elise. Her long, blonde hair was tied in twintails, and Takumi spotted purple streaks similar to Camilla’s hair color. He couldn’t quite decide if they were ribbons or actual strands of hair.

Next to her was a boy who seemed to be around his own age. He had the same blonde hair as Xander and Elise, but his was cropped short. The stark contrast between his fair features and his questionably black-dominant outfit (including his black headband) was perhaps the closest thing in this house that fit what Takumi initially had pictured for the Nohr family.

“Ooh, ooh, a visitor!” Elise jumped up, abandoning her console and hopping over the sofa to greet him. “I’m Elise! What’s your name?”

“Takumi,” he replied, slightly shaken by the amount of energy this girl radiated.

“Wait, hold up, are you Takumi Byakuya? Sakura’s brother?!”

When Takumi nodded, Elise squealed with delight. “Oh my gosh, it’s so nice to meet you! Sakura told me about you often!”

“O-Oh, really?” Takumi flushed. He couldn’t help but wonder what Sakura told Elise about him. Knowing Sakura, she probably only picked out the better parts of him to share. If _he_ had to describe himself, how would he do it?

The other boy came up behind Elise and ruffled her hair, ignoring her half-hearted protests. “Sorry for my overzealous little sister. I’m Leo,” he introduced himself as he offered a hand.

Takumi took the hand and shook it. “Nice to meet you.”

Now that he looked at him from closer up, he felt as if he had seen Leo somewhere. He couldn’t quite grasp any specific memories of him, but he somehow looked familiar. “Uh, did we see each other before by any chance?” he asked carefully, not wanting to make it sound awkward.

“From what I know, you guys are in the same year and high school,” Elise answered the question instead. “I thought you guys knew each other already!”

Takumi looked back at Leo and squinted, trying to recall if he was in any of his classes. He usually stayed away from socializing, so he actually didn’t know many people outside his friend group.

“I’ve seen him around campus before, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he doesn’t recognize me,” Leo clarified. “I usually stay in the library and don’t talk with others much.”

“This is why I told you to go out and interact more with others, you goblin! All you do is hide in the shadows and hiss at the sun!” she chastised, lightly punching Leo on the shoulder. Leo just rolled his eyes.

“Anyway, you probably know Niles and Odin, right?” he continued, looking back at Takumi.

“Oh, you mean–” Takumi paused, trying to think of how to describe them.He was going to say “the perverted guy and dramatical dude” but that didn’t sound... neutral enough, especially when he didn’t know what Leo’s relationship with them was.

As he struggled to think of the right words to use, Leo just chuckled. “Whatever you stopped yourself from saying just now, it probably describes them well enough. But yeah, I’m friends with them. They’re weird, to say the least, but they’re good guys.”

The conversation was cut short by the tinkling coming from the hallway. Xander entered the room holding a tray with various chinas. Watching his feet to not step on the consoles on the floor, he set down the tray onto the table. “I apologize for the interruption.”

“No worries, they just finished exchanging introductions,” Camilla assured, taking a seat in the recliner. The others followed her example and each chose a seat.

“Yeah, and it turns out he’s not quite a stranger. He’s one of Sakura’s older brothers!” Elise added in cheerfully, throwing in a concerning amount of sugar into her tea.

“Sakura’s brother? A Byakuya, then!” Xander said, looking at him with a spark of interest.

There it was, the look. The look that expected him to be as great as his siblings. Unfortunately, Takumi was different. He was a Byakuya, but he wasn’t the Byakuya that everyone pictured him to be.

Unlike the other members of his family, he didn’t have the ability to connect to the spiritual world. In his special family, he was just a nobody who had nothing but the burden of the namesake. All that he was good at was attracting evil spirits and making more trouble for his siblings.

Takumi pushed down the self-pity with a smile. Now wasn’t the time. He pretended to not have seen the strange look Leo gave him. “Yes, it seems like you’re familiar with our name?”

“Well, you guys do have quite a reputation around here after all,” Xander hummed, taking a sip from his tea. “But now that we’re all settled, shall we move on to discussing the problem at hand?”

“Right. Um,” Takumi played the brim of his hat. It was starting to become a tic of sorts. “I think it’ll be easier to just show you.”

He took his hat off and brushed away his messy bangs, silently watching for their reactions.

Takumi had thought that by now, he would have gotten used to seeing the surprise caused by his horns. But “surprise” didn’t do justice in describing what he saw in the Nohr sibling’s faces. It was something closer to “horror”.

“I-Isn’t that–” Elise started, both hands coming up to cover her mouth.

“It’s... It’s the same thing as what happened to father,” Camilla finished quietly, like she were almost afraid of saying it out loud.

Takumi was very confused, but he couldn’t dare speak up to question the situation. He just looked back and forth between each sibling, afraid to break the silence.

After what seemed like an eternity, Xander finally spoke up. “I- I apologize for such reaction. It’s just...” he paused, seeming to be deep in thought. “Your condition is... very resemblant to what happened to our father five years ago.”

Takumi took the chance to ask questions. “What exactly happened? Do you guys know what to do?”

“It’s kind of a hard topic for us, so we don’t usually talk about it, but...” Leo glanced at his siblings, as if asking for permission to continue. When nobody argued, he looked back at Takumi. “Considering your involvement in this, you deserve an explanation.”

He took a sip of his tea and kept his gaze onto the rippling surface of the drink. “Our father mysteriously disappeared five years ago, and ever since then we’ve been on a hiatus of sorts. At least, that’s what we told the people. It’s not untrue, but there’s more to it.”

He set down his teacup and crossed his arms.

“Before he went missing, father started having nightmares, with about a week of no sleep. Sometimes he would frantically wake us up in the middle in the morning and mutter something about us still being alive. He then one day woke to find horns sprouting from his head. So I must ask before we continue with the rest of the story, did you suffer similar symptoms before the horns actually grew?”

Takumi recalled the first night he had the abnormal nightmares. He had rushed to Sakura’s room to make sure he really hadn’t struck down his sister, that her expression of utter despair was just illusory. After apologizing to her for waking her up, he had returned to his room and cried for hours without being able to fall back asleep.

“Yeah, that’s basically what happened to me,” he replied, choking out the words as his throat tightened at the memory.

“It was an unprecedented situation, and none of us had any idea how to deal with it. Thankfully, horns aren’t a common feature, even in the supernatural world. We continued narrowing our search criteria until we managed to get a vague idea of what it could be. It was a demonic curse of sorts.”

Takumi shuddered at his last words. “Wait, are you saying–”

“Let me finish,” Leo cut him off, “I know it sounds ludicrous and terrifying, but let me finish.”

He picked up his teacup again but didn’t bother drinking its content, only fiddling with the handle. “It was an ancient curse, so old that none of our records held any concrete information on it. The only thing that we found was a legend speaking of a great war, and of people who were once good-hearted but turned their backs on humanity when they were struck by a evil being at a moment of emotional vulnerability.”

As he continued listening to Leo talk, Takumi couldn’t quite grasp the situation as reality. It felt as if he were listening a fictional story of sorts, and not something that actually was related to what was happening to him right now.

“From the small amount of hints we did manage to gather, we came to the conclusion that we must track back the origin of the horns to our father’s own emotions. However, none of us were able to push our father to let us help him. He said that he had it handled, so we believed in him. And then he disappeared.”

Leo didn’t continue talking, and a heavy silence hung in the room.

“We all carry the guilt of what happened to our father,” Xander said quietly, “And for that reason, we won’t act as bystanders a second time.”

“What he means to say is that we’ll do our very best to help you,” Camilla clarified with a small huff.

Elise seemed to perk up at the change in atmosphere. “Yeah, so you don’t have to worry!” she exclaimed, grasping Takumi’s arm. “We’re one heck of a family too, so you can trust us!”

Takumi looked around at each of the Nohrs and saw newfound determination in their eyes. The fact that such looks full of purpose were directed at him felt very... strange.

“To be honest with you, the reality of this still hasn’t quite hit me yet,” he admitted _._

_Since unlike my siblings, I never had to deal with this stuff._

“But this new development in this bizarre situation made me feel... better, at the very least. So thanks.”

“You should probably go back home for now,” Leo suggested after gulping down the rest of his tea. “Some time alone should help you organize your thoughts.”

“Right,” Takumi agreed, looking up at the clock. it was 4:30. He still had a lot of things to explain to the others, and perhaps Orochi and Sakura had found something in that spell tag.

“Do you have a ride back home? If not, I’ll take you,” Xander offered.

Takumi considered declining out of politeness, but he realized that he wasn’t quite ready to talk to anyone and would rather return home in a silent car ride. If he asked his older siblings or Orochi to pick him up, they’d probably bombard him with questions.

“I’d appreciate that,” he nodded with a small smile.

 

He felt a sense of amusement (and something like relief) by the fact that Xander’s car was as pitch black as Takumi imagined it to be.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoa look at all this dialogue  
> And here are the Nohr siblings! Next chapter will probably have Ryoma and Hinoka too and we'll have the whole Royal Siblings Squad.  
>  ~~And where's Corrin and Azura, you ask? You'll see :^)~~  
>  If you're wondering why Leo and Takumi don't quite seem like enemies yet... ~~you'll see~~  
>  Hopefully I manage to squeeze in another chapter again this week, because starting next week I'm back in school sobs


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